also attested in South Asian and Latin American folktale traditions. Synopsis A king told his son Sigurd to marry, recommending a daughter of another king as prospective wife. Sigurd traveled to that kingdom and made his marriage proposal, and the bride's king agreed to the match, on condition that Sigurd would stay and help him as long as he could. Sigurd promised to remain, until such time as he received news of his father's death. When Sigurd learned of his father's death, he set sail for his homeland with his wife and their two-year-old son. The ship was one day short of completing its journey when the wind died down. Sigurd was overcome with drowsiness and left the queen and his child alone on the deck. There approached a stone boat carrying a frightening "witch" (Lang. tr.) or "troll-wife" (). The witch boarded ship, snatched away the baby and assumed the queen's place by transforming into her likeness and wearing the fine clothes she stripped from the queen. The imposter put the real queen on the stone boat, and spoke incantations to the boat telling it to go without straying to her brother in the underworld. The boat shot off and was soon out of sight from the ship. The disappearance of the real mother made the baby cry uncontrollably, and the witch's effort to quiet it was to no avail. So the witch went beneath deck and scolded Sigurd for leaving her alone on the deck. Such a temper tantrum was something Sigurd had never received from his wife, and it surprised him, but he thought she had an excusable reason this time. But for all the efforts of the two of them, they could not stop the boy from crying. Sigurd was now the ruler of his homeland, succeeding his dead father. The little boy who used to be such a quiet child hardly stopped crying since that day, so he had to be given up to be raised by a wet nurse (or foster mother ), one of the court ladies. Sigurd noticed his wife's change in temperament: she was now more "haughty and stubborn, and difficult to deal with". But the fake queen's identity was to unravel. Two young courtiers who were in the habit of playing chess (actually Tafl games)in the room next to the queen eavesdropped and spied on her through a crack. They